Generally speaking, these types of foldable slat chairs involve a relatively simple collapsible and foldable composite chair with a back and a seat, and the back and the seat each are formed primarily of a series of parallel slats held in co-active relation to each other by fabric and lateral straps extending from the seat portion to the back portion. As a result, the portable seat may be in conventional chair use on the ground or floor or upright position, and may be in collapsed and rolled up, non-use storage position (see FIG. 7 of my prior patent).
Chairs of the type generally referred to in the Johnson Patent have met with some degree of success in the past for use at sporting events, on the beach, and the like. They are easily toted, easily set up, highly functional and lightweight for ease of use.
Applicant has been in the business of manufacture and sale of such chairs for nearly twenty years. In that twenty-year period of time, a number of noteworthy observational use and construction advances have been made. For example, my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,203 dealt with problems arising in slat insertion and maintenance within the pockets in the fabric material. Over the years it has been observed that one constructional weakness of the chairs relates to fabric material along the chair fold line as being subject to continual wear as the black slats push down in the fabric pockets and as the bottom slats push backwards in their respective pockets, and as well as while the back and the bottom are folded up and down along the fold line. In particular, this material wears under such continual abrasive movement, making it eventually wear through the seat, rendering it useless. Through the years there have been many attempts to improve the fold line hinge wear resistance. These attempts have varied from using different material than canvas, such as vinyl and vinyl covered canvas. Even experimentation with a hinge other than a living hinge, has been done. The difficulty arising in solving the problem is that the material must be comfortable against the user's skin and at the same time must be consistent with the chair's simplicity and lightweight durability, which must not be sacrificed; finally the chair must be environmentally safe (green). The latter point is especially important to recent new uses for the child-size chairs, as explained below.
In particular, Applicant has discovered that child sized chairs are especially useful for special needs children that are autistic and/or suffer from disfunctioning sensory process disorders, such as ADD, ADHD, Autistic spectrum disorders, RAD, Downs Syndrome and CP. In particular, many such children, when engaged in group school activities, are distracted by sensory overload creating hyperactivity, restlessness, difficulty in staying seated, and in staying focused on the group activity. It has recently been discovered that these portable slat chairs when made in children size, and when used with children having the above described issues or disorders, have a positive effect on the child's arousal level and attention. In particular, the child can sit in the chair, engage in group circle activities, and gently rock back and forth, giving herself a hugging effect (deep sensory input) from the chair. As a result, teachers have noticed increased attention, quieter children and better focused, circle group efforts.
But here again the child's rocking both back and forth and side to side, as such challenged children are known to do, creates even more wear and tear on the chair and accentuates the problems such as the need for a durable hinge. Put another way, the confinement factor of the chair, coupled with the “self hug” are the calming factor, but at some sacrifice to chair wear. The current chair with its improved hinge better withstands this type of use, as well as other abuses normally resulting in wear or tear.
It is accordingly a primary objective of the present invention to improve on collapsible portable slat seats by providing such a foldable seat having an improved, more wear resistant hinge.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide such a hinge which does not sacrifice comfort, or in the case of use by challenged children, does not detract from the calming hug effect that the chair imparts to them.
A yet further objective of the present invention is to provide the improved wear resistant hinge in a manner which does not significantly increase cost and in a manner which can efficiently be inserted into the manufacturing process without unduly complicating the manufacturing process.
A still further objective is to provide a method or system which provides deep pressure sensory integration for special needs children having sensory process disorders.
The above objectives as well as others can be accomplished by the methods and description of the present invention which hereinafter follow. It will be appreciated that the examples here are illustrative only and the true measure of the invention is defined by the claims.